Chasqui-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat Deployed from ISS

A team of Russian cosmonauts has deployed the Peruvian Chasqui-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat into orbit during a spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 40 Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev released the tiny, 1 kg spacecraft at 1423 UTC on August 18. Chasqui-1 is a project of the Peruvian National University of Engineering (Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria or UNI), in collaboration with the Southwestern State University in Kursk, Russia. According to AMSAT-UK, the CubeSat’s batteries were charged last week. It was launched in February 2014 on board a Progress cargo craft.

As Peru’s first satellite, its main goal is improving UNI's satellite technology, its builders said. The satellite is intended to take pictures of Earth and relay them to the ground station. It carries two cameras, one operating in the visible light spectrum and the other in the infrared spectrum. Amateur Radio is a secondary payload.

Chasqui-1’s beacon on 437.025 MHz (±10 kHz Doppler shift) can transmit either 1200 bps AFSK AX.25 or 9600 bps GMSK. As of August 19, the beacon had not been heard.